Stephen Strasburg’s debut yesterday was pretty electrifying. Supreme heat — his first pitch was 99 m.p.h. — and a good breaking ball clearly overmatched opposing hitters. As Keith Law notes, his changeup needs some work, but otherwise he’s a guy who looks like he won’t be spending a ton of time down on the farm.

I’m inclined to doubt the Gammons report. Not because I don’t trust Gammons, but because Boras has a history of ineffectual beefing about the way his clients are used by teams in a way that suggests that he doesn’t have any leverage when it comes to that stuff. He’s SuperAgent and everything, but I just can’t picture any organization letting him dictate competitive decisions like that.

Figure on Strasburg being up in June and pitching those 150 innings or so.

150 innings? That’s like pitching everyday. Because, as you know, top pitching prospects should be in the ‘pen where they can feed off of their emotion and focus on their best pitches without worrying about the need to further expand their repertoire. It’s obvious, really, that Strasburg’s ~50 eventual innings per season as a closer will be more valuable than ~200 innings as a starter. He’ll be even more valuable if he doesn’t have to fill the shoes of the best closer all time, as he can cobble the role as he sees fit. If you want proof, just look how Brian Sabean is wasting Tiny Tim out there in San Fran.
recaptcha: he belabors